Patna DM among 72 IAS officers shuffled

In a major administrative reshuffle, the state government on Friday transferred 72 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers--from principal secretary rank to district magistrate's level, including Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Singh.

According to a notification issued by general administration department (GAD), the government changed four principal secretaries, four divisional commissioners and 16 district magistrates. An IAS officer of 2000 batch, Purnia district magistrate N Saravana Kumar has been shifted to Patna in the same capacity.

Outgoing Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Singh has been posted as special secretary in the chief minister's secretariat. The government posted five secretaries, 12 additional secretaries, three joint secretaries, two special secretaries and one deputy secretary.

Besides, eight officers have been posted as directors and two as managing directors of different state government undertakings.

Some IAS officers have also been given additional charges. The government also promoted 38 Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) officers to IAS and posted them on various posts.

Principal secretary, general administration department, Deepak Kumar, has been posted as principal secretary, cabinet coordination department while A Santosh Mathew, waiting for posting, has been made principal secretary, social welfare department.

DS Gangwar, waiting for posting, has been posted as principal secretary of the general administration department.

Secretary, agriculture department, N Viajaya Laxmi, has been transferred to the backward and extremely backward class welfare department in the same capacity, while MNREGA commissioner Pradeep Kumar has been posted as managing director (MD), Bihar State Financial Corporation.

The government also posted two IAS officers in the unbundled state power board. While Nalanda DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal will be the managing director of North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited, Palka Sahni, joint secretary, GAD, has been promoted and made managing director of the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited.

He will also hold the additional charge of MD, Bihar State Water Board. Mines and geology department principal secretary KP Ramaiah, holding additional charge of mines commissioner and director, has been posted as commissioner of Tirhut division.

He will also hold the additional charge of secretary, tourism department. Magadh commissioner Vivek Kumar Singh has been posted as secretary, agriculture department Finance department secretary (resources) R K Khandelwal will be the new Magadh division commissioner.

Gopalganj DM Pankaj Kumar will replace Purnia commissioner Brajesh Mehrotra, who has been made I&PRD secretary.

Araria DM M Sarvanan has been made director in the agriculture department. Nawada DM Divesh Sehra will be the new excise commissioner-cum-IG, registration.

The government has also shifted Muzaffarpur DM Santosh Kumar Mall to finance department as secretary (resources), Darbhanga DM Narmadeshwar Lal has been posted as project director, Bihar State Disaster and Rehabilitation Society. Lal will be replaced by Supaul DM Kumar Ravi.

Manish Kumar Verma, currently posted as director, social welfare department, has been made Purnia DM. Bhojpur DM Pratima S Verma has been moved to Sitamarhi in the same capacity. She has been replaced by Pankaj Kumar Pal, CEO-cum-commissioner of the Patna Municipal Corporation.

Rohtas DM Anupam Kumar has been shifted to Muzaffarpur in the same capacity, while Samastipur DM Kundan Kumar has been transferred to Nalanda. Sitamarhi DM Ashwini Dattatrey Thackeray has been posted as DM, Nawada. Kishanganj DM Sandeep Kumar R Pudakalkatti has been transferred as DM, Rohtas.

Khagaria DM Dharmendra Singh has been made director, social welfare department. Kaimur DM Jai Singh has been made joint secretary-cum-director, urban development and housing department.

Among the officers of the state civil service promoted to the IAS, the government posted Krishna Mohan, special secretary, rural development department, as new DM of Gopalganj.

Joint secretary-cumdirector, home (prison) Lakshmi Prasad Chauhan has been posted as DM of Supaul. Officer-onspecial duty in the rural development department, Aditya Kumar Das, will be the new DM of Kishanganj, while Chittaranjan Singh, joint secretary in the chief minister's secretariat, has been promoted and made DM of Araria.

Pravin Kumar Singh, joint secretary, urban development and housing department has also been promoted and shifted to Kaimur as DM. Syed Parvez Alam, joint director-cum-joint secretary, panchayati raj department, will be the DM of Khagaria, while Navin Chandra Jha, joint secretary, GAD, has been shifted to Samastipur as DM.

All the DMs will have to ensure that preparations for printing of electoral rolls in their respective districts were complete before they relinquished their charges. The divisional commissioners too will relinquish the charges only after sending the third report to the election commission.

Anirudh Prasad Singh, OSD, finance department, has will be the new director, social security. Narendra Kumar Singh, ADM, Kishanganj, has been posted as director, handloom and silk directorate.

Shashi Kant Tiwari, ADM (departmental inquiry), Darbhanga, will be director, panchayati raj department. Mahesh Prasad Gupta has been posted as special secretary, tourism department, whle Sudhir Srivastava will be special secretary in the governor's secretariat.

Khurshid Ahmad has been appointed special secretary, finance department. Binod Kumar has been made special secretary, road construction department. Arun Derhgave has been promoted and mane secretary, state election commission. Rajendra Prasad Ojha has been appointed additional secretary, health department.

Prabhat Shankar, has been posted as additional secretary, finance department. Raman Kumar, has been made secretary, revenue board. Parshuram Mishra has been posted as secretary, Bihar Staff Selection Commission. Kumar Binod Narayan Singh has been appointed Darbhanga municipal commissioner. Kaushal Kishore Verma has been made secretary, Bihar State Power Electricity Board.

Ghanshyam Prasad Daftuar has been made additional secretary, mines and geology department, while Mithilesh Kumar Singh has been posted as additional secretary, rural development department.

Arun Kumar Singh has been made municipal commissioner, Muzaffarpur. Suresh Kumar Sinha has been posted as additional secretary, transport department.